2,349 kg marijuana seized off eastern Cuba; 3 detained
Cuba's Border Guard Troops seized 2,349 kilograms of marijuana in two October 2020 operations off the island's eastern coast. Officers detained two Bahamians and a Jamaican in the 16 October interception after an earlier crew escaped on 9 October.
🇨🇺 Coast near Baracoa and Maisí, Guantánamo · Cuba
On the morning of 16 October 2020, Cuban border guards detained two Bahamians
and one Jamaican aboard a speedboat with two outboard motors.[1][2][3][4]On the night
of 9 October 2020, guards detected a speedboat with two outboard motors carrying
three or four people aboard off southeastern Cuba.[1][2]The guards pursued that
boat for an hour but could not catch those aboard.[1]After the pursuit, the
Cuban military notified the Miami Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defence
Force.[1][2][3]
Cuba’s Tropas Guardafronteras, the Border Guard Troops, seized more than two
tonnes of marijuana in two October operations against international drug
trafficking on the island’s eastern coast, as reported by the state newspaper
Granma.[1][2][3]In the days after the 9 October chase, authorities recovered 70
containers and eight isolated packages containing 1,618.75 kilograms of
marijuana near Baracoa and Maisí.[1][2][3][4]In the 16 October interception, the
guards seized 730.41 kilograms of Jamaican marijuana.[1][2][3][5]Granma reported a
total of 2,349 kilograms seized in the two operations.[1][2][5]Granma said the
entire volume would be incinerated.[1][3]
Interior Ministry sources described the first operation as one of the most
complex recent confrontations with drug landings because of its characteristics
and the volume captured in more than 20 different moments and places in the
island’s waters.[1]
Naval units of the eastern provincial border troops, the Interior Ministry’s specialized anti-drug directorate and police took part in the search, alongside the coastal watch detachments known as Mirando al Mar.[3]Most of the first load was recovered at sea.[3]Granma said investigations into the origin and destination of the drugs and into the detainees were continuing.[3]The detained crew faced heavy penalties for international drug trafficking.[2]The Cuban government publicised the two operations only on Tuesday 3 November 2020.[2]
Photos and video
The speedboat captured on 16 October and the seized marijuana packages. Photo: DTGFPhoto details
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Source: DIARIO DE CUBAThe speedboat captured on 16 October with its three crew and the marijuana cargo. Photo: DTGFPhoto details
Only one accessible account of this event could be opened, a Diario de Cuba report relaying the state newspaper Granma; no second independent account was found.
The exact interception point of the 16 October boat was not given beyond Cuba's eastern coast.
The names, ages and legal status of the two Bahamians and the Jamaican were not reported, and no charges or court outcome were given.
The published total of 2,349 kilograms is slightly rounded against its components of 1,618.75 and 730.41 kilograms, whose sum is 2,349.16 kilograms; the report uses the published total.
The article also mentions 251 packages with 593 kilograms seized in May 2020, a separate event left out of this report.
The incident date uses the latest operation on 16 October 2020; the first operation occurred on 9 October 2020.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in DIARIO DE CUBA: Cuban authorities said investigations into that second case were continuing.
14ymedio says notifying the Miami and Bahamas coastguards facilitated the traffickers' detention, while the report records that the 9 October crew escaped; no arrests from that first operation are reported.
The published total of 2,349 kilograms is rounded: the two components, 1,618.75 and 730.41 kilograms, sum to 2,349.16 kilograms.
The Cubadebate, Granma and OnCuba accounts give the same official state account; no independent non-official account of the interceptions was found.
Frustra Cuba operaciones de narcotráfico (Granma) could not be opened again to check its quotations (the browser could not load the submitted public page; archived fallback unavailable (Wayback availability answered HTTP 429). No AI research was started); what it says is as the AI read it.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in OnCuba News: Cuba's Tropas Guardafronteras, the Border Guard Troops, seized more than two tonnes of marijuana in two October operations against international drug trafficking on the island's eastern coast, as reported by the state newspaper Granma.
A court in Las Tunas sentenced a man to 15 years in prison in Case 115 of 2026 for trafficking marijuana with cocaine and synthetic cannabinoids in the Mexico neighborhood. Electronic surveillance showed systematic selling, and the court added loss of public rights, confiscation and a travel ban under Cuba's Penal Code.
The Holguín provincial court sentenced an unnamed repeat offender to 14 years in prison on 28 April 2026 for cultivating and selling marijuana at Jagüeyes de Puerto Rico, Banes, where police had seized 429 plants weighing 2.42 kg and 11,280 pesos on his arrest in May 2025. Civil rights were revoked with a 14-year travel ban and cash confiscated.
Cuban Border Guard Troops and the US Coast Guard seized 17 containers holding 340.7 kilograms of marijuana off Banes, Holguín province, after a tip from Miami. US authorities detained the two people who fled in the speedboat, and Cuban border troops took over the investigation.
Cuban border guards seized around a tonne of marijuana from a speedboat intercepted off Maisí, Guantánamo, detaining its three Bahamian crew. Authorities said the shipment was moving through the Windward Passage toward the Bahamas and the United States market.
